From the Parish House

This weekend we will listen to the Gospel of Luke 12:32-48.  The text is calling the followers of Jesus to be dressed for action and ready to act and to respond to the call of the Lord.

How are we to dress for action?  The Eucharistic prayers can sometimes help us to focus on what God might be calling us to.  One of the options in the missal is to use one of four Eucharistic Prayers for various needs and occasions.  It seems to me that we do not use them enough.  And each of them helps to call and shape us into the people of action that Luke is calling us to be.

Eucharistic Prayer for Various Needs IV is titled “Jesus who went around doing good.”  The prayer begins with its own preface recalling what Jesus did in his own ministry.

“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Father of mercies and faithful God.  For you have given us Jesus Christ, your Son, as our Lord and Redeemer.  He always showed compassion for children and for the poor, for the sick and for sinners, and he became a neighbour to the oppressed and the afflicted.  By word and deed he announced to the world that you are our Father and that you care for all your sons and daughters.”

It then goes on with the words over the bread and cup after which it continues:

“Open our eyes to the needs of our brothers and sisters; inspire in us words and actions to comfort those who labour and are burdened.  Make us serve them truly, after the example of Christ and at his command.  And may your Church stand as a living witness to truth and freedom, to peace and justice, that all people may be raised up to a new hope.”

In other words, the Eucharistic Prayer is praying that we can do and say and act in the way that Jesus did.

It is a good example of how the transformation of the bread and wine into the body of Christ is also a transformation of the believing community into the body of Christ.  The body of Christ is both the bread we eat and the body we become.

So, if we are going to be dressed for action and ready to respond to the call of the Lord we will find ourselves first and foremost in the mystery of the Eucharist.

This weekend many of our young people from our schools will present themselves in our churches to commit themselves to prepare for Confirmation.  We should pray for them too that they will be transformed in the manner of Eucharistic Prayer IV and that they too will be dressed and ready for action on their Confirmation day.

By Fr Brendan Reed